Honshu

//ˈhɑnʃu// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The main island of the archipelago of Japan.

    "A fascination with Hokkaido's wild country first drew the veterinarian to Abashiri, and he is a leading expert on the Ezo red fox. Like much of Hokkaido's wildlife, this fox is not found on Honshu."

Example

More examples

"Are you aware that Okinawa is closer to China than to Honshu?"

Etymology

From Japanese 本(ほん)州(しゅう) (Honshū, “main island”), from Middle Chinese 本 (pwón, “main”) + 州 (t͡ʃjuw, “province”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.